U.S. Department of Agriculture

So far this year, more than 600 fires have burned some 629,000 acres in the state. The governor says private lands used for agricultural production have been disproportionately affected.

More local meat, produce and grains will be hitting food bank shelves this summer thanks to a more than $500,000 Local Food Purchasing Agreement Grant for the Food Bank of Wyoming from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The goal of the funding is to buy more food from small-scale Wyoming producers and distribute it to folks in need across the state.

In celebration of Earth Day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded over $1 million to nine rural businesses in Wyoming to help them lower energy costs. The money comes from the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which is funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The REAP initiative helps agricultural producers and rural small businesses use more renewable energy sources and increase their overall energy efficiency.

Seventy-six wildlife conservation groups have petitioned the Department of the Interior to ban the use of M-44s on Bureau of Land Management lands. The devices, commonly known as “cyanide bombs,” remain a controversial tool for predator mitigation.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $1 billion grant program this week to help communities facing wildfire risks. Grants for wildfire protection planning or outreach can be up to $250,000. Affiliated infrastructure and resilience projects can get grants of up to $10 million.

Central Wyoming College's program is one of only a handful of meat science programs in the nation and the first in Wyoming. The program teaches United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines, food safety, and how to responsibly butcher an animal.

The federally funded program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is administered by the Wyoming Department of Education and provides free meals for kids and teens who may not otherwise have regular access to food outside of the school year. The program saw a significant increase in the number of meals provided last year due to the pandemic.

Wyoming landowners in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have long allowed wildlife to migrate through their private lands, and now, a new partnership will financially compensate them.

The U.S. The Department of Agriculture granted $500,000 to a group recently to help build a maple syrup industry in the Mountain West. At least one business is already doing this in Montana, but organizations across the region are working together to spread awareness and research a possible syrup industry in our own backyards.

The Biden administration announced Monday it would use $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan to help small and independent meat processors.